Celebrating Joyful Chaos

My “Blue Brain” apologies for not posting for the last month. Since, October 27th, when our son, Noah, daughter-in-law, Kelly and granddaughter, Yasmin, moved home from Sao Paulo, Brazil, my Brain Colors have continually experienced “Joyful Chaos!”


Kelly (baby#2) Jordan, Noah, Yasmin, Joshua and me at O’Hare for the Brazilians’ 6:00am  arrival

The following are some of  my  “Joyful Chaos” moments that have deterred me from posting on my blog. 

On Tuesday, November 11th, Veterans Day, our son, Noah, and I traveled to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to celebrate my cousin, Major General Stanley F.H. Newman’s, induction into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. Stanley flew 57 missions over Europe in a P-51 during WWII.


Our cousins, Harriet, Stanley, George, with me and Noah.

His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, meritorious Service Medal, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 14 Air Medals. Noah and I were honored and thrilled to share such a memorable evening with our family and be among so many remarkable individuals. Stanley was one of 14 heroic veterans who was honored. Noah and I enjoyed sharing dinner and family stories with our cousins, George, Linda and John. It was a thrill sharing the celebration with so many of our “Newman Family” members  for such a “one in a life-time” experience and honor Stanley for his service to our country.

On Wednesday morning, we enjoyed a delicious “family” brunch at a local restaurant and then waited 6 hours for our return flight to Chicago. We finally arrived home exhausted and elated from our adventure.    

On November 14th our weekend of Family Birthday and Anniversary Celebrations began. My college room mate, Michelle, and her husband, John, arrive to celebrate Michelle’s 65th birthday.


Celebrating with Jordan, Yasmin, Michelle and John.

On Sunday, we had a family celebration for Noah’s and Kelly’s 6th anniversary, our eldest son, Joshua and his wife, Sheryl’s 7th anniversary, my husband’s 66th birthday and granddaughter, Yasmin’s 2nd birthday both on November 18th and my sister-in-law, Adrienne, and grandniece, Dylan’s birthday. Lot’s of cooking and celebrating was done with the Glazov Gang.

Since the first week in November, I had spent many hours creating a dynamic new PowerPoint framework for my What Color Is Your Brain? Workshops with my friend and “professional speaker” mentor, Joe O’Rourke. On November 24th, I decided to purchase a new computer. Joe had helped me create so many impactful and exquisite visuals, they overload my old computer. My Green Brain researched what would work best for me and learned that Walmart sold Dell computers. I was off to the local store to purchase my Dell Studio Laptop. I was thrilled with my new purchase and immediately began setting up the programs. 

The following week was Thanksgiving and 17 family members joined us for the holiday and celebrating the 44th anniversary of Jordan and I going out on our first date to a evening Black Hawk Hockey game. However, since 1985, Thanksgiving has always been bittersweet holiday because our eldest son, Joshua, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes that weekend.

On Tuesday, December 2nd, I presented an all day team-building workshop/celebration for the National Restaurant Education Foundation. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with such an enthusiastic and participatory individuals.


Green Brain Team NRAEF Team Members

On December 5th, I decided that I would spend the next week with my family and catching up on office work. Then I was zapped with the old Yiddish Expression, “When a (wo)man makes plans, God laughs.” applied to me. I spent the next 5 days on the phone with McAffe protection, Microsoft and Dell, but to no avail. Everyone had promised they would do their best. However, their best did not work.

On Tuesday, December 9th,  I realized that I had spent almost 60 hours attempting to fix a “LEMON.” I called the Walmart,
spoke to the manager , and within 2 hours I had returned the “LEMON” for new computer. In fact, I called Jason Weisenberger, the store manger of the Crystal Lake Walmart to let him about the quintessential customer service I relieved from his staff for the second time in two weeks. Customer service is still alive and well.

In the mean time, My husband and I began to wonder if having Noah living with us again meant we need to building “A Glazov Gang Ark.” A valve broke in our basement and flood in our lower level garden room (right before Thanksgiving) and our kitchen facet to broke and flooded our kitchen. “Only kidding, Noah. We’re thrilled you are home!”

Last Sunday, December, 14th, our Glazov Family celebrated Chanukkah two weeks early, because of several family member’s schedules. As always, a grand time was enjoyed by all!


The Latkah Makers – Jordan and his brother, Burt.
 
This  year, Jordan and I decided to not exchange gifts with family members. In the spirit of season  we were more comfortable sharing with families who are not as blessed as ours. Instead, we made a donation to the Community Crisis Center in Elgin, Illinois.  CCC‘s mission is to provide Safety, Hope, Advocacy, Respite and Education for those impacted by crisis and violence in the Fox Valley Region and Illinois.

Yesterday was a day of celebrating and camaraderie. In the morning, our Women in Networking  group celebrated the holiday season with a delightful Holiday Breakfast. We enjoyed visiting and singing with one another and exchanging gifts. We also collected financial donations to A Safe House, a shelter in Lake County, non-perishable foods for a local food pantry and clothing to help women who need to dress appropriately when going back into the workplace. I am honored to be part of such an amazing and thoughtful group of women!


4 Presidential WIN Women 
 
At noon, I enjoy a delicious and informative luncheon with our Congresswoman, Melissa Bean, and six other members of our Women’s Task Force.

Whew! This afternoon, I finally accomplished setting 
aside time to organize the Chaos in my Mult-Colored Brain 
to en“JOY” writing this post…


and it looks like Yasmin knows that we will continue  
to celebrate “Joyful Chaos” in our home!

Sheila N. Glazov ~ Author ~ Speaker ~ Educator ~ Personality Type Expert .
Please, visit my website to learn more about your Brain Colors, my What Color Is Your Brain? book and workshops. 10% of the royalties from the sale of my book is allocated to JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)

 sheila glazov elgin community crisis center national restaurant association education foundation women in networking-lake zurich oklahoma military hall of fame juvenile diabetes research foundation Turbo Tagger

Please Spread the Word